St. Pete Local Hiring Incentive Program Approved by Council

The local hiring ordinance, or what is now called the "construction incentive program," was passed unanimously Thursday by the St. Petersburg City Council. 

The 8-0 vote in favor in the ordinance marked the end to nearly two years of debates, studies, meetings and amendments to the policy aimed at getting local construction workers jobs on city construction projects. 

First proposed as a mandate, the local hiring policy evolved into an incentive based program that allows contractors to get the money owed to them by the city faster. 

Originally on all city construction projects, 10 percent of the money owed to the company was held in retainage to ensure contractors complete the contract. 

If a contractor meets the requirements of the new policy the city would hold less retainage throughout the project, which means companies would get their money faster. 

Thursday's vote amends the June proposal to include incentives for contractors to have apprenticeships, lowering the baseline to $500,000 for projects to be eligible for the program and lower the expected average salary of employees in the hiring equation to $40,000.

That means for contractors to be eligible for the program, a third of the employees on projects worth more than $500,000 would have to be local hires. A third of the new hires would have to apprentices and disadvantaged workers. 

A disadvantaged worker, according to city documents, is defined as "a new hire who has a criminal record and is either a recipient of public benefits or a person with personal income below 50 percent of the area median income."

City staff developed the policy with input from Faith and Action for Strength Together, the Chamber of Commerce and a group of local contractors. 

"Stakeholders reconvened on July 22 and concurred with changes to the program that addressed all issues," said public works administrator Mike Connors.  

Mayor Bill Foster said getting more local workers employed "was a passion for FAST, but it was not going to work unless we cold bring the construction industry (to) the table."